Crafting extra air tanks is useless.

[Anker]

I get the sense these exist only for if you've lost your first air tank somehow- And if you have, then if the plants dont regrow then you wont be able to go deep enough to get the flowers to craft more in the 8 seconds you have no no-tank air.

If you DO have an air tank, you might think that when one tank goes empty, you can give up an inventory slot (of which you do not have many) to swap in a fresh tank. Nope- All air tanks of the same type seem to share air capacity, so there's no point carrying more then one.

[1]

Putting that crafter in the elevator that can spit out air tanks is a bizarre move. As you say, extra air tanks are worthless, as this game has no internal logic. I have less than no idea why we can even craft air tanks, as they have no purpose at all.

[Smartik1]

It looks like for the moment it's in case you lost the original. It is needed for the upgrade recipe. There are multiple underdust towers with different layouts and getting outside the range of a tower respawns it so you will always have enough plants near to be able to craft more.

The description is confusing and suggests stacking is possible. I've seen it flagged in other posts so they will probably be changing that.

I expect the stacking won't be possible due to the existence of oxygen stations. I don't think anybody would want to waste the batteries for a refiller if they had multiple air tanks on them. In Subnautica, the oxygen tanks took up a significant chunk of inventory (more if you had the big ones) and there were no oxygen stations, so swapping tanks made sense.

[1]

I think you are right about the air tanks, but there is only one underdust tower. Been to over a dozen now; all identical. Some are even the original tower cloned, batteries and all.

[Reaver00]

I mean, the game is early access, so they either have something better planned or are tying to figure out a better system and this is a placeholder until they implement something else.

[TH3xR34P3R]

The devs have stated this is just in the event you loose the canister that you spawn with, as for the layouts we'll just have to wait as updates are released to see how much they vary at the time.

[Packman_r97]

Originally posted by H:

Putting that crafter in the elevator that can spit out air tanks is a bizarre move. As you say, extra air tanks are worthless, as this game has no internal logic. I have less than no idea why we can even craft air tanks, as they have no purpose at all.

i wouldnt saw they are pointless to craft/research.. the mid size tank 150 sec of air.. that u can find down in the underdust in the hidden rooms, a small one is needed, but if u look up in the underdust u will see "blue balls" u can collect with arrows and they give you extra Oxygen.

[Kkat]

Having the crafting station in the elevator is superbly useful for other work. I'm glad it also contains the small airtank recipe just in case someone has lost their original one. Good thinking on the dev's part.

Currently, the underdust towers are identical save for some RNG elements such as if/where the dead mantis spawns and the orientation of the elevator. I suspect this will change in the future, but it's good for now.

[DragynDance]

Yeah, but if you've lost your original airtank you still can't craft a new one because it requires a flower, which you have to go outside in the underdust layer to get, which requires an air tank. So it's still useless.

[brulis2]

Not to pile on here, but now that I have experienced the Underdust area, I absolutely hate it because of the oxygen issue. I have also played Subnautica and find that system much more forgiving in the underwater tunnels and whatnot because you often can bring your small craft down into those areas or wear your suit. In the Underdust, the oxygen depletes too quickly and I find no enjoyment trying to find my way back in a panic.

[Raymondcello]

Originally posted by brulis2:

Not to pile on here, but now that I have experienced the Underdust area, I absolutely hate it because of the oxygen issue. I have also played Subnautica and find that system much more forgiving in the underwater tunnels and whatnot because you often can bring your small craft down into those areas or wear your suit. In the Underdust, the oxygen depletes too quickly and I find no enjoyment trying to find my way back in a panic.

the dust is relatively easy to traverse, as nearly all underdust labs are setup the same way. bring a crystal battery with you or two, there are oxygen stations in every major room and at the entrances to the caves. ive gone to my third or fourth underdust lab, and this last run i only used two oxygen stations, where the battery was provided. (many of the stations have a battery within arms reach of it) and i pocketed the rest of the batteries and only used those two stations, and honestly only needed the one INSIDE the cave. all others, if you know the layout well, you can grab everything you need within time to get to the elevator withou the need for extra air if you have the medium tank.

[Asmosis]

The only different Lab layout i noticed is the first one elevator is turned 90 degrees to the left. The rest of the area is identical.

The actual area is pretty easy to navigate once you know what you're doing, there's enough crystal batteries down there to activate every oxygen station without even crafting one. Half of the stations have a battery right next to them.

Originally posted by H:

Putting that crafter in the elevator that can spit out air tanks is a bizarre move. As you say, extra air tanks are worthless, as this game has no internal logic. I have less than no idea why we can even craft air tanks, as they have no purpose at all.

Perhaps for some reason the player might have tossed out the airtank they start with.

Originally posted by DragynDance:

Yeah, but if you've lost your original airtank you still can't craft a new one because it requires a flower, which you have to go outside in the underdust layer to get, which requires an air tank. So it's still useless.

You can survive about 15 seconds without oxygen in there and there's two flowers right next to the elevator. IIRC you can craft oxygen tank on your airship and that version doesnt require the flower, the organic crafter has (some) different recipes.

Overall this system is a lot more forgiving than subnautica.